Berkun believes that there is a chance Pollard can be freed, but it will take pressure on the White House, he said.

Pollard gave secrets to Israel, but none of those secrets caused any harm or death to an American. According to Berkun, individuals that gave secrets to other countries that caused harm to Americans have had lesser prison sentences than Pollard.

“I can’t help but think there’s an element of prejudice,” he said, noting that he believes Pollard has been “singled-out.”

Fellow members of his Talmudic Jewish religion think very highly of Berkun as can be seen in comments made by the late Senator Arlen Specter addressing the Senate (click here to watch video).

Alvin Berkun greets Donald Wuerl during a reception at Oakland Catholic High School following Wuerl's farewell Mass of Thanksgiving at St. Paul Cathedral in Oakland.

Using a favorite phrase of Pope John Paul II, he greeted his guests with "Dear elder brothers and sisters, Shalom."

In his relationship with Jews, "this pope is as close as any pope could be," said Rabbi Alvin Berkun, rabbi emeritus of Tree of Life Congregation in Squirrel Hill and a past president of the Rabbinical Assembly, the international organization for rabbis in the conservative movement.

"He is really very good for Jews, no question about it."

Rabbi Berkun was among 30 representatives of the Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations to meet with Pope Francis on Monday. The group has been the Vatican's partner in dialogue since 1970.

Rabbi Berkun has been involved for about half that time. He studied under Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who helped the bishops at Vatican II draft Nostra Aetate. It denounced anti-Jewish bigotry, especially a popular notion that all Jews were "Christ-killers."

When there are serious tensions in Catholic-Jewish relations, Vatican officials have been known to call Rabbi Berkun directly to explain their point of view. He credits Pope Benedict XVI with good intentions despite occasional gaffes, and has long honored Pope John Paul II for modeling friendship and respect for Jews and Judaism.

But while Pope John Paul exercised his pre-papal ministry in a post-Holocaust Poland largely devoid of Jews, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio worked alongside a thriving Jewish community before he was elected pope.

"This pope's life intersected with all of those rabbis in Buenos Aires. He could have absented himself from those relationships, but they were very important to him," Rabbi Berkun said.

He had met Cardinal Bergoglio during a 2004 meeting of the dialogue group in Buenos Aires. He visited a Catholic-Jewish project to help the city's poorest people with food and job training. There he took a photo of a priest and a rabbi walking together through a slum. He showed it to Pope Francis when they had a brief chat.

"I also told him that Pittsburgh is the only diocese in the world that has the program where rabbis teach in the parochial schools. We've been doing it for 11 years now, and Catholic educators also come to our synagogues to talk about changes in Catholic-Jewish relations," he said.

He was describing the Catholic-Jewish Educational Enhancement Program, in which rabbis teach the religion classes once a month at all Catholic high schools in the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

The pope, he said, "appreciated hearing about C-JEEP in Pittsburgh."

Although Rabbi Berkun is thrilled with the progress in Catholic-Jewish relations since 1965, he worries that it's known mostly to theologians, not ordinary Catholics and Jews. Pope Francis, be believes, can take the message to grass roots.

"The church has clearly adopted [Nostra Aetate's] principles -- thus my audience today and the tremendous progress in interfaith relations in Pittsburgh," he said.

"I would like to see, on the eve of the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the pope's promulgation and implementation to the believer in the pew. He surely believes anti-Semitism is a sin. His flock, especially in Europe, has to hear him say it again and again."

7 comments:

How can Catholics have anything to do with the Babylonian talmudists who teach that Our Lord Jesus Christ was a socerer, fruit of the rape of Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary by a roman soldier and is suspended in Hell over a vat of boiling excrement for eternity. Who teach that Our Lady was a prostitute? Who are descendants of the Pharisees ( although the arch-traditionalist Bishop Williamson seems to doubt this), whose father, Our Lord declared , is Satan. It is my opinion that when Vatican II declared that the talmudists were 'our elder brothers in faith', they effectively enthroned Satan as the head of the Church. At least the Muslims venerate Our Lord Jesus Christ as a prophet and venerate his Mother, Our Lady.

A Fr Edward Brophy of New York wrote about The Brotherhood Religion - Is it Christianism, way back in 1951. He obviously wasn't taken seriously at all. Today, this religion of Khazaristan rules the world, the Vatican II religion and it's popes included.

This book by Fr Brophy is just about 30 pages, quarto size. Hopefully, some Christian warrior will place a freely downloadable version on the net.